How Could You?
by Anakin T Skywalker
Summary: This is the end of Revenge of the Sith in a slightly different way than you may be expecting. Rather AU. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer: Star Wars does not belong to me. I'm just borrowing it.**

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Obi-wan Kenobi was flying his ship back from a successful mission on Utapau, when his comlink buzzed. He sighed. He didn't mean to be selfish, but was it too much to ask that he have a few minutes to relax after he had killed General Grievous in a grueling battle? He reluctantly pressed the "accept" button, and a hologram of Yoda appeared.

"Young Obi-wan," he said, "terrible news for you, I have. Discovered, the identity of the Sith Lord has been."

Obi-wan was perplexed. "But, Master Yoda, why is that bad? Isn't that what Anakin and I have been trying to do for the last standard month?"

"The Lord of the Sith, Chancellor Palpatine is," said Yoda gravely.

Obi-wan gasped, shocked. "You mean that, all this time, the Senate _has_ been directly under the control of a Sith Lord?"

Yoda nodded. "Worse yet, it is. A new apprentice, he has taken, to replace Count Dooku. Fallen to the Dark Side, young Skywalker has, and agreed to accept Sidious's teachings."

Obi-wan cried out in grief. "No! That's – it's – it can't be! It's impossible! He would never – he couldn't – he was like my brother! I don't believe it"

Yoda sighed. "Show you the recordings, I will."

Yoda's image disappeared, and in its place was a hologram of the room of a Thousand Fountains. Cin Drallig was there, fighting with and unseen enemy, a crowd of frightened younglings behind him. As they backed further into the view of the holorecorder, the Jedi Master's enemy appeared. It was Anakin. Obi-wan watched in horror, tears streaming form his eyes as the Jedi Master fell – he didn't see quite how – to Anakin's blade. Then he turned on the younglings, who blocked his blows bravely, but who couldn't possibly last long against Anakin. Before he had to watch any of them fall, however, Yoda mercifully fast-forwarded the hologram.

"Need to see _that,_ you do not," Obi-wan heard from the background. When the hologram returned to normal speed, it was of Anakin, kneeling before Chancellor Palpatine – no, Darth Sidious.

"You have done well, Lord Vader," the image of Palpatine said. "Rise and go now to Mustafar, where the Separatist leaders are waiting. End this war and give them… justice," he said with a wicked smile. Anakin inclined his head, saying, "Yes, my master," then rose and stalked out of sight. The hologram faded, and Yoda's image returned.

"Know you, what you must do," said Yoda sadly. "To Mustafar, go. Confront young Vader, you must."

"No!" shouted Obi-wan. "Please do not ask this of me. I will attempt to reclaim him, but do not ask me to kill him!"

"More control over your emotions, I had expected of you, young Master Kenobi. Difficult, I know this will be; strong is the bond between you and young Skywalker. But," he continued gravely, "No return from the path of the Dark Side, can there be. Forever will it dominate Vader's destiny. Do what you must."

Obi-wan wondered how even Yoda could possibly be so heartless, but he said, "Yes, Master. I will leave now." He terminated the transmission and plotted coordinates for the Mustafar system.

When he arrived and came out of hyperspace, he was surprised to see another ship orbiting the planet, preparing to enter the gravity well. It wasn't Anakin's ship, but it was familiar. What in blazes was Senator Amidala doing here? Obi-wan followed her down the gravity well.

He watched in horror as she ran to Anakin, who was coming out of the complex to meet her. They embraced, and Obi-wan suddenly realized he had been right about them all along. He climbed out of his starfighter and approached, intending to confront both of them, when Anakin,catching sight of him, suddenly turned ferocious.

"_You!_" he spat toward Padmé. "You brought him here to destroy me!"

"No! Anakin!" she wailed, cowering in fear. "I swear, Anakin, I didn't know he was"—

"Liar!" growled Anakin, furious. "You deliberately led him here so he could kill me!"

Padmé tried to speak, but Anakin's hand went out, crushing her throat with the Force. She struggled to breathe, clutching at her throat, but Anakin did not relent.

"Anakin!" Obi-wan commanded. "Let her go!"

Anakin dropped his hand, and Padmé fell to the ground, unconscious. Then Anakin turned his rage on Obi-wan. "You turned her against me!" he roared.

Obi-wan shook his head in disbelief. "You have done that yourself!"

"I'll give you a chance, Obi-wan. For old time's sake. Walk away. Just walk away."

"But, what about Padmé! Anakin, she needs medical attention! Let me take her to a med center!"

"She stays. You will not take her from me!"

Obi-wan sighed, grieved. "Then I will do what I must."

"You will try!" shouted Anakin.

Their sabers came out, ignited, and then clashed together. They fought furiously, back and forth through the complex. Obi-wan was worried; his heart wasn't in the fight, and he couldn't truly give it all he had. Anakin, however, seemed to be treating it like an intense, dangerous game. Walls, chairs, tables, and consoles all fell victim to their missed and deflected strokes. When Anakin sliced through a control panel, the shielding that held the lava off the supports for complex was turned off, and the buildings slowly but inevitably began to disintegrate into the lava. Then they were fighting out onto the narrow arm of one of the mineral harvesters. They were nearly to the end when a huge glob of lava fell where they had just been, melting the metal and causing the arm to break off and float down the river of fire. It was slowly being consumed by the lava, and they had to find a way off quickly or they would both perish in the flames. Obi-wan found a cargo platform to jump onto, while Anakin leapt for a tiny droid. Balancing precariously, they came together and fought again. Anakin just didn't give up! Finally, Obi-wan maneuvered his platform close enough to the shore of the lava river to jump off and land safely.

"It's over, Anakin!" he called out. "I have the high ground!"

Anakin didn't respond. Obi-wan felt a sudden wave of the force wash over him, and the droid Anakin rode sped up the river a short distance, where Anakin too jumped safely onto the bank. Obi-wan slowly approached him, ready to fight again, but to his surprise, Anakin sent his lightsaber sailing toward Obi-wan, unignited. Obi-wan was so stunned he almost failed to catch it. Anakin then ran toward him. Obi-wan could not figure out what in the worlds Anakin was trying to do. Obi-wan already had both lightsabers! Had Anakin gone crazy?

Anakin tackled him, wrapping him in a giant hug. Obi-wan was completely flabbergasted. "_What_ is going on?"

Anakin sat back, a huge, idiotic grin on his face.

"April Fools!" he yelled, then began laughing uproariously.

Obi-wan sat in stunned silence for a minute. Then it hit him. "Th – this whole thing… was a _joke?"_

Anakin nodded, still laughing too hard to talk.

"But what about Padmé?"

"Did somebody call me?" she asked from the complex above them.

"But, Anakin, I saw you…"

Anakin calmed himself enough to speak. "She and I are both, apparently, very," he choked back a giggle, "very good actors!" He burst out laughing again. Padmé was laughing, too.

Obi-wan still had questions. "But the younglings, the transmission from Yoda, Palpatine" –

"We had a lot of help," explained Padmé. "Apparently they're all good actors, too."

"But this was your idea, Anakin?"

"Yeah!" he replied, "But, as you can see, we had Yoda's blessing!"

"_Why_ would you do such a thing?" Obi-wan exploded. "You could have killed me! I could have killed you! Actually, I'm not sure I still don't want to!"

"We all agreed. We wanted to see if you actually could get angry and have a good laugh at your expense. So, if you're going to kill me, then you'd better wait until I can deliver this holorecording of your reaction to the Council – I promised them it would be a good show. It was the only way I could get them all in on it. Oooh! Uh-oh!" he exclaimed, watching Obi-wan's face carefully. "Ummm, Padmé, I think you'd better run back to the ship, he's got my lightsaber!"

Anakin and Padmé both ran, laughing, as Obi-wan chased them back to the ships.


End file.
